Usually played with marbles, the ever popular game of Chinese Checkers can be made up as a peg board, using differently colored golf tees for each player. For the peg game, reduce the diagram in Figure 5.20 by one-half.

A bag of f-in. marbles from the ten-cent store will include enough different color combinations for two, three, and sometimes four players. Two or certainly three bags of marbles will provide a selection of ten marbles of six different colors or contrasting striping arrangements for the maximum number of six players.

Fig. 5.20. Chinese checker board.

An inexpensive board may consist of a 16-in. square of wallboard with a 1/2-in. frame nailed underneath it, flush with the outside edges. Holes with a maximum diameter of 1/2 in. can be bored all the way through this type of board. In the case of 1/4-in. plywood or other stock, the 1/2-in. holes need not penetrate the board.

The shaded areas in the diagram represent different colors—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. These colors, and any others included in the remainder of the star, are of flat paint so that the India ink lines will "take"; they will run on enamel.

A quickly made "jiffy" board can be drawn on wrapping paper, using checkers, washers, or cardboard disks not only in the place of the marble counters, but as compasses for the i-in. circles, which will increase the overall size of the board by one-half.

Rules

The object of the game is for each player to move his marbles (pegs or counters), from one triangle to the corresponding triangle directly across the board. The first player to do so wins.

Each of from two to six players covers the ten holes of his point of the star with his set of marbles. Two players occupy opposite points; three players every other point, and so on.

1. Each player moves one marble only at a turn, either one hole in any direction, or one or more jumps over other marbles, as in checkers, which are so placed that he can jump one marble at a time by following the straight lines connecting the holes on the board. The marbles jumped may be his own, as well as his opponent's.

2. A player may jump a series of marbles in one turn, zigzagging in any direction, so long as each jump is in a straight line.

3. No marbles are removed from the board at any time.